CHANGE ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RUBBER TREES AT CANOPY AND LEAF SCALES DURING THE BRAZILIAN AUTUMN

Abstract. The objective of this work is to investigate the hyperspectral remote sensing potential to detect spectral changes undergone by clones of two rubber trees within Brazilian Autumn, with decrease of rain, temperature and photoperiod between May and June. Indirectly, we also analyze the ability of the data to help discriminating the clones at two dates in autumn. The average canopy spectra of the stands were obtained with two overpasses of the ProSpecTIR-VS airborne hyperspectral sensor (357 bands between 400–2,500 nm; spatial resolution of 1m) by 14^th May and 17^th June, in 2010 year. Additionally measurements of leaf spectra were taken in the same dates, but in the 2011 year. Considering the analysis of the spectra measured from the three stands, this indicates that spectral differences in the VIS (400–700 nm) region are of genetic origin and occur regardless of environmental conditions and period of data collection. In the NIR (700–1,300 nm) range, the environmental factors predominate in the two periods of data collection. The SWIR (1,300–2,500 nm) displayed the largest differences between the months of data collection. In May, the relationship between stands indicated the prevalence of environmental aspects. However, in June, the stands and clones spectral behaviour indicates that as the temperature, the rainfall and the photoperiod are lower closer to winter, the SWIR can be effectively used to discriminate and map these clones separately.